This assessment has been made in the ICTY chief prosecutor's regular report to the UN Security Council on the work of prosecutors of the Hague-based UN tribunal in the last six months. The report was submitted to the UN Security Council's session in New York on Thursday.
"During the reporting period, Croatia has responded adequately and in a timely manner to the majority of requests for assistance. In addition, the Office of the Prosecutor continued to receive adequate assistance to specific requests from the Office of the Croatian State Prosecutor," reads the report in its writing form.
"However, during the reporting period, the Office of the Prosecutor continued to face difficulties in securing Croatia's cooperation in the Gotovina et. al. trial. Specifically, the Office of the Prosecutor has unsuccessfully sought to obtain a number of key military documents related to Operation Storm in 1995. Little progress has been achieved in this respect since the Office's last report to Security Council," reads Brammertz's report.
He recalls that in 2007, ICTY prosecutors identified and requested a number of specific documents related to the trial of Croatian Army generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac. After Croatia failed to produce those documents, the trial chamber in this case ordered Croatia last September to provide a detailed report on its efforts to locate the requested documents.
According to Brammertz's report, during the course of the investigation into the matter, Croatia provided certain pertinent documents and some information relevant to establishing the chain of custody of a number of documents which went missing.
However, Croatia has continued to deny the existence of many of the requested documents,
"In February 2009, Croatia agreed that, of the 98 documents still sought by the Prosecution, 23 key documents were created and were missing," read the report adding that none of these 23 key documents have been submitted.
"Since the trial is nearing completion, the Office of the Prosecutor urges Croatia to continue its investigation in a comprehensive manner and to focus its efforts on locating and providing these key documents to the International Tribunal," read the section of Brammertz's report referring to Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal.
In his semi-annual report, the ICTY President Patrick Lipton Robinson said that since its establishment the Hague-based UN tribunal had completed proceedings for 117 indictees of a total of 161 persons indicted by the court.
According to Robinsin, 21 indictees are standing trial before the tribunal, 13 cases are in the stage of appeals. An additional six indictees, including war-time Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic are waiting for the start of their trials in the course of this year.
The ICTY president, however, stresses that one serious hurdle remains for the implementation of the tribunal's exit strategy - the fact that Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic are still on the run. He called on the international community to help in efforts to arrest the two fugitives.
Robinson will ask the UN Security Council to allow the correction of the exit strategy, so that the deadline for the completion of trials be postponed from the end of 2009 to 2012.